Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to I built VanCamera: FOSS, secure, zero-config Android webcam for Windows
Turn your Android into a webcam for Windows. Open source, secure, zero-config. - danielbolivar/vancamera
VanCamera is a free and open-source Android app that turns a smartphone into a webcam for Windows computers. It requires no configuration to set up and emphasizes security by keeping data local. The software is… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites.
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2019 · uview.io · its alternatives →
- 2IMI made a tiny camera with super long battery lifefrom $200/mo▲843
Hey HN! A few years ago someone kept trying to steal my motorcycle, so I decided to make a small camera with really long battery life to catch them. The hardware/software is totally open source, but the companion app only supports macOS currently. (I'm a big fan of native apps, and didn't want to block releasing on Linux/Windows support.) I wrote some blog posts about the process: PCB design: https://toaster.llc/blog/pcb Enclosure design: https://toaster.llc/blog/enclosure Image pipeline:…
2024 · toaster.llc · its alternatives →
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I needed a security camera inside my house, one that would send motion notifications to my smartphone and would allow me to livestream remotely. However, I could not find one that I could trust due to privacy concerns. Many of them upload the plaintext of videos to their servers and none is fully open-source as far as I know. Therefore, I decided to use my spare time to build one from scratch. Called Privastead (as in Private Homestead), it uses OpenMLS for end-to-end encryption (between the camera local hub and the smartphone) and is mostly implemented in Rust (except for part of the…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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After building several Tauri desktop apps, I kept hitting the same wall: there's no reliable way to access cameras across Windows, macOS, and Linux. Every project meant reinventing camera integration, dealing with platform-specific APIs, and debugging permission issues. So I built CrabCamera – a Tauri plugin that handles all the camera complexity for you. What it does: - One API, three platforms: Same Rust code works on Windows (DirectShow), macOS (AVFoundation), and Linux (V4L2) - Permission handling: Automatically requests camera permissions on each platform - Format conversion: Takes care…
2025 · crates.io · its alternatives →
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Circle Camera▲138Minimalist webcam app that displays your camera in a circle.
2025 · its alternatives →
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Camiocam▲154Turn any tablet or smartphone into a home-monitoring camera
2014 · camio.com · its alternatives →
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xpression camera▲297Become anyone on Zoom, Twitch, or any streaming video
2020 · xpressioncamera.com · its alternatives →
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Camera FV-5▲97A camera app with DSLR-like manual controls for Android
2017 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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Turn your Android smartphone into a High Quality PC webcam
Jul 2026 · dushhub.github.io · its alternatives →
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DroidCam▲87DroidCam turns your phone/tablet into a webcam for your PC
2021 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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Turn an old phone into a real ONVIF/RTSP camera
Aug 2026 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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Take raw photos with proof they're real, not AI
May 2026 · vwfndr.camera · its alternatives →
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Viyo▲91Turn any device with a browser into a security camera
2019 · vuabongda.club · its alternatives →
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Turn your laptop or mobile device into a motion camera alarm
2020 · motionsecurity.cam · its alternatives →
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A simple mobile web app inspired by Fuzzy-Search/realtime-bakllava that uses llama.cpp server backend with multimodal mode to describe and narrate what the phone camera sees. I built this thing in a few hours using a single ChatGPT thread to generate most things for me and iterate on this project. Here's the workflow: https://chat.openai.com/share/ea84ec69-5617-45e8-8772-ac2dcf...
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hate, hate, hate, for Google and its crashtastic Pixel 6 Pro. - classilla/OpenCamera
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
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GitHub▲1VCamdroid: use your android phone as windows virtual webcam
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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2016 · zombocam.com · its alternatives →
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Several months ago, I posted in Show HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42284412) about this project (previously named Privastead, now changed to Secluso). It's a privacy-preserving home security camera that uses OpenMLS for end-to-end encryption between the camera and the mobile app. The post received a good amount of attention and there were many good comments. Since then, my project cofounder and I have made major improvements to the project. The project previously would act as a hub for an IP camera, which was otherwise closed source. But now, our camera software can…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →